


Lavender

by starstruck_xavier



Series: Xavier's Bad Things Happen Bingo [3]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Fluff, Arguing, Bad Things Happen Bingo, Crying, Cuddling, Fluff, M/M, Nicknames, No Physical Fighting, Patton Needs a Hug, Sad Patton, Verbal Fighting, because we all love him whether we admit it or not, don't let them see you cry, dorky janus, janus has six arms, remus mentioned, request, thomas mentioned - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:01:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25693957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starstruck_xavier/pseuds/starstruck_xavier
Summary: Patton has never liked the sound of fighting, but at least someone catches onto that.(bthb on my tumblr: starstruck-xavier)thank you to the-duke-of-nuts on tumblr for requesting this! <33
Relationships: Deceit | Janus Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders
Series: Xavier's Bad Things Happen Bingo [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1837843
Comments: 4
Kudos: 110
Collections: Bad Things Happen Bingo





	Lavender

Patton has never liked the sound of fighting.

He knows that these arguments usually get resolved, that it’s very rare nowadays for the sides to hold extensive, serious grudges against each other thanks to the improvement in communication that they’d all been practicing with Thomas, but this is six characters all trapped within the confines of one man’s imagination and the laws of physics out in the real world. They can’t be separated from each other for alone time that easily. Everyone is always everywhere.

Individual words can’t even be distinguished from the quarrel that Logan and Roman are having, yelling meaningless insults at each other, Patton and Virgil merely caught in the fray. About five minutes of this has transpired with Virgil becoming more and more fidgety until he sinks out with an apologetic look to Patton, not even noticed by the other two quarrelling.

He’s the dad character, he should be able to stop them from fighting! But whenever he opens his mouth, the lump in his throat threatens to rise and spill his tears. And then what would they think of him? He can’t let them see him cry. Even though everyone’s been comforting and supportive of him through his more emotional days, this is a different situation. Roman and Logan are too caught up in their argument to think about timeout or indoor voices.

So, Patton waits, blinking rapidly, breathing deeply, waiting for a moment of silence so he can clear his throat and cause them to realise just how loud they’re being. Thomas probably has one hell of a headache. It’s getting harder and harder to watch the two sides argue, their quarrels clearly straying from the topic they’d first started on. However, just as Patton thinks he’s about to break, he feels a tugging that alerts him to being summoned elsewhere.

When he rises up again, he’s in a room that doesn’t look extremely familiar, but the black and yellow theme gives away just who’s it is.

“Janus?” Patton scans around the room until he lays eyes on the newly accepted side. "I’m— I'm just moderating a discussion in the common room. Do you need anything?”

"I’d hardly call it a ‘discussion’, Patton. I’ve been listening." Narrowing his mismatched eyes with suspicion, Janus walks over slowly and touches his gloved fingertips to Patton’s chin, gazing into watery eyes. "Don’t try to force your tears down. You’ve got a lot bottled up in there.”

Instinct compels him to deny that he’s feeling anything negative, plaster a smile on his face and force his voice up a pitch to uphold his sunny disposition, but then Patton remembers who he’s talking to. Janus can spot lies, that’s his function. Still, the moral trait simply takes off his glasses to rub at his eyes, not ready to let everything go just yet. “Logan and Roman are just… arguing. It’s a little much. They didn’t even notice when Virgil left.”

Janus hums in thought, then perks up as he has an idea. "I’ll go out there for you and handle things. I think that if I try to join in as myself it’ll set them off further, so, may I impersonate you for the time being? I know they both have a soft spot for you, but I saw how upset you looked watching them. You can stay here.”

Ever since Janus’ multiple impersonation plots, he’s learned to ask for permission before shifting into another side’s look. As reluctant as he was when Thomas decided to get everyone to work on better communication, he’s aware now that taking someone’s place without letting them know will cause confusion and general discord, and so he awaits Patton’s answer, hearing a distant ‘falsehood’ screech through the walls.

"Yes… please. Y— You don’t have to—“ Patton starts, but Janus shushes him gently.

"I know I don’t have to, but I want you to feel better." The snake skin on Janus’ face starts to fade as he alters his appearance to mirror the side in front of him. "I _won’t_ be back soon, and then you _can’t_ tell me everything that’s been on your mind lately." He smirks humorously, eliciting a more genuine smile from Patton, then conjures a pair of glasses and clears his throat, feeling his larynx lift upwards to accommodate the difference in voice patterns that the two exhibit. "Don’t go anywhere, kiddo!”

There’s no flaw in how Janus captures his voice with a dorky movement of his shoulders, making Patton chuckle to himself for a moment, then all the smiles leave him as soon as he’s left alone. He makes his way to Janus’ bed and sits down, leaning against the wall and hearing muffled conversation in the common room.

"Okay, guys, let’s not fight anymore.”

"Oh, my apologies, Patton. We must’ve figuratively strayed from the original topic.”

"Yeah, because Calculator Watch over here is being too stubborn to listen to my idea!”

"I was listening, it’s just preposterous!”

“Logan! Roman!”

A few seconds of silence drift through the air, then… "Where did Virgil go?”

"He left about five minutes ago. Poor kiddo must be pretty anxious.”

That reminds him - Virgil. He’s been on Patton’s mind for some time as well, adding to the mountain of emotions lodging in his throat. The kind, apologetic look he’d received from the anxious side before he left feels strangely refreshing after the buildup of tension between the two, ever since the whole puppet video. They’ve definitely made an effort to repair their friendship - Patton treats Virgil more like his intimidating self while still maintaining a doting, fatherly attitude and Virgil tries not to direct his outbursts towards him - but still, it seems like something’s missing. Patton just wants his best friend back.

The thought sends his tears overboard, and within a matter of seconds he’s stifling his sobs into his hand. The softener in Janus’ bedsheets underneath him provides a little bit of comfort, but every time Virgil’s face appears in his mind, the faucets in his eyes open a little more. It’s getting harder to keep his hitched breathing under a controlled volume, and he doesn’t want to alert anyone’s attention so that Janus can continue with his plan, so he grabs a pillow, sets his glasses down beside him and hides his pain away from the rest of the room.

The pillow smells of lavender. Lavender, purple… Virgil…

Patton doesn’t lift his head when he hears the familiar _whoosh_ of displaced air as Janus returns, he just continues to sharply inhale the lavender scent and sob through his exhales. He doesn’t even try to collect his scattered pieces when a pair of arms wrap around him and hold his trembling body close, keeping it intact. Of course, with Janus being part snake, he doesn’t radiate body heat like the other sides when he gets hugs from them, but that doesn’t change the feeling of a comforting body leaning against his. All the while, Janus stays quiet and waits for him to talk, sprouting his four extra arms after a while to card one hand through his hair and trace various patterns into Patton’s arms and back with the others.

It takes a long time for the moral side to steady his breaths, but eventually he removes his face from the tear-stained pillow to look at Janus with red eyes and a runny nose. He barely stops himself from apologising, apologising for crying, crying into his pillow nonetheless, instead reminding himself that he is the emotional side and that it’s completely normal for him to be feeling this way - something he’s had to remind himself of for so long. No words are spoken yet; Janus uses his extra arms to shift Patton into his lap and then moves to lay down on the bed with Patton’s head against his chest. Tears still leak from puffy red eyes, but it seems that he’s finally let all of his most intense emotions out.

For the rest of the day, every now and again Patton says something like "I wish mine and Virgil’s relationship was the same as it was before”, or "I made Thomas think he was a bad person”, or "I just hate seeing my family fight" in between sniffles, and Janus continues the comforting motions of gloved hands in his hair and on his back, underneath his blue polo, telling him that Virgil doesn’t hate him, neither does Thomas, and it’ll all be okay soon as long as everyone decides to cooperate, and Patton knows that there’s nothing but truth in his words.

"Did you manage to get Logan and Roman to forgive each other?" He asks after a few minutes of comfortable silence.

Janus hums amusedly. "Yes, I eventually revealed myself and told them I'd get Remus to gently nudge them down the stairs if they didn’t.”

The response causes Patton to laugh adorably as he props himself up on his elbows to look at him, the corners of his eyes creasing in that way they do when he’s smiling genuinely. “Janus, no violence!”

"I was only joking, sweetie." The dorky side’s forked tongue flickers out with his smile, but then he tilts his head playfully and looks into Patton’s eyes for a moment. “…Unless?”

Patton has never liked the sound of fighting, but at least somebody has caught onto that now. In the meantime, the two will laugh the evening away and then fall asleep, tangled in each other’s limbs, but then eventually Logan and Roman will sort out their differences for good, Patton and Virgil will finally have a long-anticipated conversation, and Janus will be supporting him all the way.

Maybe it’s helpful to let yourself cry in front of somebody else every now and again.


End file.
